GENERATIONS Ken Shores

April 10 – July 23, 2008 For over fi fty years, Ken Shores has worked in the arts – learned new approaches to using the potter’s wheel, and began as an artist, administrator, collector and teacher. This exhibition to incorporate a loose, expressionistic energy into their work that off ers an opportunity to examine Shores’ work in a historical changed ceramics history.3 continuum that simultaneously links his work with that of his Around the same time, Bauhaus-trained Marguerite Wilden- teachers, mentors, contemporaries and students, as well as his hain was teaching summer workshops at her Pond Farm studio collections. Presenting over 150 works from public and private in Guerneville, California. Although both Voulkos and Wilden- collections and three large photomurals of his collection on hain visited uo at Avakian Ross’ invitation, it was Wildenhain’s display in his home, Generations: Ken Shores is the fi rst museum approach that Shores chose to learn. The diff erences between retrospective to honor an important regional artist and founda- Wildenhain’s classical form and carved surfaces, and the cal- tional fi gure in the American Craft Movement. Organized by the ligraphic and painterly surface treatment of Hamada’s plate and Museum of Contemporary Craft, the exhibition is the second Voulkos’ wax resist vase, are visible when set side by side. Shores in the Generations series to examine the history of craft in the describes spending the summers of 1955 and 1956 at Pond Farm Pacifi c Northwest. as “one of the greatest infl uences in my life – not so much the To understand Shores’ legacy requires recognition of style of pottery, because it took several years to break away from how his work connects with the history of twentieth century what she taught us concerning a good pot. But learning how to studio ceramics. Grouped together, the vessels on view created make pots was so important because she demanded so much.”4 by Shores, Victoria Avakian Ross and Glen Lukens are clearly From Wildenhain, Shores learned how to create a disciplined life linked. Victoria Avakian Ross, head of ceramics at the University as a working artist. of Oregon (uo) from 1920–64, taught Shores according to the Being a potter, however, was not Shores’ goal; he wanted style of Glen Lukens, her teacher. Lukens, known for his simple to create and he wanted to use clay. His search for a molded vessels coated in thick, vividly colored glazes, is recog- sculptural approach that matched the materiality of clay while nized as a pioneer of West Coast ceramics.1 Shores left school engaging history led him to the work of Spanish architect Anto- in 1946, returning to the uo to continue his studies in 1953.2 By nio Gaudí.5 Here, Shores found a model for biomorphic form, this time, molded forms were being replaced with a newfound sculptural hand-built structures and an unapologetic engage- fascination with the potter’s wheel. In 1952, Shoji Hamada, ment with surface decoration. The building blocks of Shores’ Bernard Leach and Soetsu Yanagi introduced the Mingei Move- artwork can be traced, in many ways, to his mfa thesis project, ment through a series of lectures and workshops held from Los awarded with honors in 1957 from uo. In the works from his Angeles, California, to Black Mountain College, Asheville, North thesis on view, the glazing techniques of Victoria Avakian Ross, Carolina. One of the most famous of these workshops took place wheel-throwing skills of Marguerite Wildenhain, and the organic at the Archie Bray Foundation, Helena, Montana. modernism of Antonio Gaudí merge into a range of sculptural and participated in that workshop, where they vessels. Shores created a personal visual vocabulary through the embrace of the hand-sculpted form that counters the rectilinear (whose works are also on view), Shores continued to clarify ways lines of industrial modernism. to express his ideas. Exhibitions of his own work – from Japanese Skipping his graduation ceremony, Shores instead chose Haniwa-inspired portraits to pre-Columbian inspired “people to attend the fi rst annual conference sponsored by the Ameri- pots,” classical Italian portraiture to painted slab can Craftsmen’s Council (now the ) at – convey the energy surrounding ceramics during the sixties. Asilomar, California. Gathered together for the fi rst time were When ocs founder Lydia Herrick Hodge died in 1960, attendees from forty-eight US states, Mexico, Canada, Finland, Shores served as acting director until named the fi rst paid direc- Sweden, Denmark, and Afghanistan – artists and per- tor in 1964. Under Shores’ directorship from 1964–68, the newly sonalities about whom Shores had read or heard through word renamed Contemporary Crafts Gallery (ccg) expanded its exhibi- of mouth. Over the course of three days, attendees discussed tion and gallery spaces, and continued to further develop national the socioeconomic outlook facing craftspeople, the relationship connections. At this time, Shores also began service on the board between design and technique, and professional practices.6 This of the American Craftsmen’s Council as a Northwest Crafts- was the moment in which a community coalesced, with the man Trustee from 1966–70.7 As ccg fl ourished, Shores faced a conference and its proceedings serving as the foundation of a diffi cult decision of whether to devote himself to directing the new American Craft Movement. For Shores, the experience led organization or to making his art. It grew increasingly diffi cult to to lifelong friendships with artist , Paul Smith do both. (former director of the American Craft Museum, New York) and In 1967, Shores began teaching part time at Lewis & Clark Rose Slivka and Lois Moran (former editors of Craft Horizons College while transitioning from his director’s role at ccg. and American Craft). It also connected him to a growing national From 1968–95, Shores built and established the art department, community of artists working with similar ideas and led to using Wildenhain’s methods as the foundation for the ceramics exhibition opportunities in which he presented his work to an program. His legacy continues through the work of his many international audience. students, including Ted Sawyer, Gary Smith, Skeffi ngton Thomas Following the conference, Shores became the Artist-in-Resi- and Steve Schrepferman, who have provided examples of their dence at the Oregon Ceramic Studio (ocs), Portland (now the work for this retrospective. Teaching freed Shores from the Museum of Contemporary Craft). Shores would spend the next constraints of producing work to make a living, and his artwork ten years balancing his own work with his growing responsi- fl ourished. Following a World Crafts Council trip to Peru in bilities at ocs. Many artists who are now recognized as leaders 1968, he began creating his internationally acclaimed “Feather of their generation exhibited their work at ocs, one of the few Fetishes,” a series he continued to develop for the next fi fteen venues that showed contemporary craft. Through conversa- years. These luxurious and exquisitely crafted objects evoke tion with other artists, such as Betty Feves, , Erik imagined functions and rituals, although they remain out of Gronborg, Howard Kottler, Henry Takemoto and Robert Sperry reach, completely enclosed in vitrines atop mirrored bases. As Rachael Griffi n, former curator at the Portland Art Museum special opportunity to place his work at the center of an ongoing noted, the work runs on an independent course: “There is no dialogue about craft and its history in the region and beyond. funk here, no austere hard-edge, no non-sensuous conceptual- To present this exhibition and accompanying publication as a ism.”8 What is here is a series layered with complexity and mean- tribute to Ken Shores is a pleasure and a privilege. ing, objects that speak of an imagined social life that connects simultaneously with the historical tradition of the vessel and Namita Gupta Wiggers a critique of contemporary fetishization of the art object.9 As curator, museum of contemporary craft, april 2008 Shores continued to teach, he began to travel extensively, visiting and collecting work from Europe, South America, Morocco, Thai- 1. Dietz, Ulysses Grant. Great Pots: Contemporary Ceramics from Function to Fantasy. New Jersey: The Newark land and, in particular, India. To address the deep interconnect- Museum, Guild Publishing, 2003. edness between Shores’ artwork and his collection, the “Feather 2. Interview between Ken Shores and Namita Gupta Wiggers, March 2007. Shores left school after his fi rst Fetishes” constitute the largest area of the exhibition, and are year, spending the next few years working in the display departments of department stores in Portland, San Francisco and Los Angeles. He attended classes at the Art Center in Los Angeles, as well as one more semes- juxtaposed against photomurals of Shores’ collection as displayed ter at uo before enlisting in the US Army in 1951. After serving his tour of duty from 1951–52 during the Korean in his home. War, Shores returned to complete his undergraduate and graduate degrees at uo on the gi Bill. Generations: Ken Shores is the fi rst museum exhibition to 3. Slivka, Rose. “The New Ceramic Presence,” Craft Horizons, July–August 1961, p. 30–37. focus on this central fi gure in the history of ceramics in the 4. Interview between Ken Shores and Lamar Harrington, January 29, 1976 for Harrington, LaMar, Ceramics in Pacifi c Northwest. Placing his work in context with that of his the Pacifi c Northwest: A History. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1979. teachers and contemporaries, the exhibition reveals Shores’ role 5. Hitchcock, Henry-Russell. Gaudí. New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1957. in the historic shifts that moved clay from a strictly functional to 6. Conference proceedings of the “First Annual Conference of American Craftsmen, sponsored by the conceptual medium. The exhibition also highlights the theoreti- American Craftsmen’s Council,” Asilomar, ca, June 1957, p. 5 cal underpinnings of his undeniably exotic “Feather Fetishes.” 7. In 1980, Shores was elected a Lifetime Trustee Emeritus to the National Board of the American Craft A frequent world traveler and a collector of “egoless” art for de- Council. cades, Shores’ inspiration is drawn from the unsigned religious 8. Griffi n, Rachael. “Earth and Air Find their Magic in the Ceramics of Ken Shores,” Craft Horizons, August 1970, p. 26–29. and spiritual art from Europe, India and East Asia that saturates 9. Appadurai, Arjun, ed. The Social Life of Things: Commodities in Cultural Perspective. New York: Cambridge the walls and spaces of his home, work from outside the Western University Press, 1988. cannon of art and contemporary art’s conversation with itself.10 10. Interview between Ken Shores and Namita Gupta Wiggers, June 2007. Much like Lukens, Shores believes, too, that “the new in art is incredibly old and the old is still vastly new.”11 Living in a culture 11. Clark, Garth. A Century of Ceramics in the United States 1878–1978. New York: E.P. Dutton, 1979, p. 303. where virtuosity and self-proclamation prevail, Shores, a student 12. Vedanta is a spiritual philosophy based on the Upanishads, and the idea that all religions strive towards universal truth. of Vedanta since 1958, focuses instead on unity.12 Because Shores is quick to divert a conversation away from himself, this is a RELATED PROGRAMS excellence in craft lecture curator’s talk Paul Smith, Refl ections: Generations: Ken Shores Twentieth Century Studio Craft Movement – Sunday, May 4, 2 pm, The Lab. Free. Current Observations Namita Gupta Wiggers, Curator, will discuss how Shores’ works relates to modernism, the historic Thursday, April 10, 7 pm, The Lab. $5 general (free for shifts in ceramics from function to concept over the members and students), tickets at the door. past fi fty years, and his synergetic lifestyle as an artist, Director Emeritus of the American Craft Museum administrator, teacher and collector. (now the Museum of Arts & Design), Smith will present a personal account of twentieth century craft public dialogue based on over fi ve decades of involvement. Kaff eeklatsch school’s out!/art’s in! Tuesday, June 3, 12 pm, The Lab. Free. Journey to the East Bring your lunch and join Museum staff for a casual social gathering of coff ee and topical conversation. Friday, April 11, 9:30 am–3:30 pm. This month’s topic: Why collect? What does is mean $45 general; $40 members at household level to have a collection? or above, The Lab. Pre-registration required. Form available at: museumofcontemporarycraft.org/ public dialogue programs_soai.php Shores is a world traveler and a collector of art from A Conversation between Friends India, China and Thailand, among other places. Art Sunday, June 8, 2 pm, The Lab. Free. from these places inspired his work and is on view Mija Riedel recently interviewed Ken Shores for the in photos of his home. Looking at Shores’ work and Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution. collection for ideas, kids will create special travel Join her as she continues their conversation about memoirs. Shores’ life and his role in the American Craft Move- ment. exhibition talk The Curator Walk-Thru exhibition talk Tuesday, April 15, 12 pm. Craft in Context: 1960s to the Present Talk convenes and the front desk. Free. Sunday, July 13, 3:30 pm, The Lab. Free. Get the curatorial perspective from Namita Gupta Namita Gupta Wiggers, Curator, will discuss the his- Wiggers as she leads an hour-long walk-through of tory of the American Craft Movement as seen through current exhibitions. the exhibitions presented by the museum over the past fi fty years. Connected to Generations: Ken Shores, family discovery sunday the lecture begins with exhibitions that coincide with Feathered Extravagance Shores’ directorship of the Contemporary Craft Gallery in the sixties. Sunday, April 27, 1–4 pm The Lab. Free and open to all ages. museum tours An interactive afternoon at the Museum for the whole Tours convene at the front desk and run 45 minutes. family! Ken Shores’ “Feather Fetishes” serve as inspi- Free. Drop by between 11 am and 12:30 pm every ration for using feathers to transform everyday objects Wednesday or 1 and 2:30 pm every Saturday for a into something more. guided tour of the exhibitions on view. on view in the museum captions

Shores discusses his “Feather Fetishes” and philosophies about page 1: Detail of Sketch for ceramic sculptures, c. 1957; Ink on paper; Collection of Ken Shores. art in “SHORES” (1972), a short documentary directed by Mollie page 2: Tall Goblet (detail), 1957; Ceramic; Collection of Ken Shores. Gregory on view in The Lab. Total Running Time: 15:48. page 3: People Pots, 1961; Stoneware; Photo: Courtesy of Ken Shores. on the web page 4 (clockwise from top right): Pond Farm trio, 1956; Ceramic; Collection of Ken Shores. Selected interviews between Ken Shores and Namita Gupta Ken Shores as Artist-in-Residence at the Oregon Ceramic Studio, Portland, Oregon, 1960; Photo: Courtesy of Ken Shores. Wiggers, conducted March–August 2007, are online at Toshiko Takaezu and Ken Shores in the studio, mid 1980s; Photo: Courtesy of Ken Shores. www.MuseumofContemporaryCraft.org. Edited by Heather Tower Temple, 1989; Clay, acrylic paint, glass; Collection of Ken Shores. Feather Fetish, 1979–80; Ceramic, curly duck feathers, mirror, Plexiglas; Collection of Ken Shores. Craig, April 2008. Structure Series #19, 2000; Clay, glass; Collection of Ken Shores. Feather Fetish, 1970; Ceramic, feathers, Plexiglas; Collection of Ken Shores. Warrior, 1960; Stoneware; Collection of Joan Tripplett. A forthcoming oral interview with Shores will be available online Tall Goblet, 1957; Ceramic; Collection of Ken Shores. at the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Green crackle plate, c. 1945; Ceramic; Collection of Ken Shores. www.aaa.si.edu. page 5: Feather Fetish, 1974; Ceramic, feathers, mirror, Plexiglas; Collection of Ken Shores. page 6: Ken Shores on one of his many Art & Architecture Tours through India, late 1970s/early 1980s. Photo: Courtesy of Ken Shores. exhibition catalog View from Ken Shores’ hallway, 2007; Photo: Aaron Johanson. Generations: Ken Shores will be published in conjunction with All object photos by John Clark unless otherwise noted. the exhibition. The publication includes essays by Gary Smith, Charissa Terranova, and Namita Gupta Wiggers, and an introduc- tion by David Cohen. Rose Slivka’s “A New Ceramic Presence” This exhibition is supported in part by a from Craft Horizons, July–August 1961 is reprinted courtesy of grant from the Oregon Cultural Trust, investing in American Craft and the American Craft Council. Oregon’s arts, humanities and heritage.

Edited by Anjali Gupta. Photography by John Clark, Aaron Johanson and Dan Kvitka. Design by Katherine Bovee. Published by the Museum of Contemporary Craft, 2008.

This forthcoming publication will be available for purchase at The Gallery at Museum of Contemporary Craft, Summer 2008.

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